riverviewlogs | ( closed ) lost research

Entry tags:

( closed ) lost research

who: Jim Kirk, Leonard McCoy, Peggy Carter, Re-L Mayer, Shai Ebbisaryn, Sans, Dick Grayson, Scott Lang, Yuuri Katsuki, Victor Nikiforov
what: a rescue mission
when: from May 15th through to the end of the month
where: abandoned area, along the river, the delta and the waterfalls; between the first and second walls
warnings: monster attacks, probably some injuries/blood, don't expect anything more than that; add any needed warnings on your own threads as needed, please!

Despite the risks, most of the journey was a fairly quiet one. A lot of hours walking, making their way along the riverside, trekking through the woods and across small clearings. When the sun set they'd set up camp somewhere, and as soon as it rose they got back to their feet and out towards the Delta underneath the waterfalls.

Jim made sure they had all they needed; maps, compasses, whatever devices that could help them navigate the terrain. As far as supplies went, they had plenty of covers and extra clothes to make sure they didn't suffer through the colder nights, but there were no luxuries out here. If it rained, they'd be mostly unprotected, and they could only shower and wash their clothes so long as they had the time and access to the stream of the river. There was plenty of food, hopefully enough to last them the round trip, but they also had a myriad of tools and weaponry needed for any hunting and scavenging so they didn't always have to consume from the food they'd brought along for the trip.

The creatures living out here were another concern, and on a journey this long, they were bound to run into something sooner or later. They should be packing enough weaponry to keep the team safe and everyone in one piece, though.

Hopefully, it would be worth it. Jim didn't even care if they didn't get their hands on any of that research— all he cared about was that there were people possibly lost and in danger out there, and he wanted to try and save them.

[ ooc: this is a mingle log, so everyone feel free to write up your own top levels and/or tag around as much as you like! ]

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Well, that was good to know. He really wasn't too fond of the idea of being considered a some sort of drawback. Though, he was fully aware the scientists were at this point. Once he perched up on the rock, he leaned down and pulled the woman up carefully with what help Jim could give him. Pushing her back and out of the way, he hesitated only long enough to see her sit there looking dazed before he moved back to the edge.

"Gonna be a bit harder, but let's get the other guy up here, too." Dead weight though the comatose guy was, he still wanted him out of harms way. This kind of moving is not good for either he nor Jim, but it's better than getting trampled, that's for sure.

Sending Re-L another glance, he tracked her gaze to where the creature seemed to be and frowned. "Either way. Get us up here, I'll mind them... if you want to deal with our unwanted guest." That last part was turned to Jim as he reached down to grab on as best he could to the other scientist. "You better keep yourself in one piece regardless."

Jim rolls his eyes at Re-L's answer, though really he should expect no less. At least he's abundantly used to sarcasm, so he breezes through it without a word, while he helps Bones hoist the woman up onto the boulder. Once that's done, he picks the unconscious scientist back up, finding himself having to struggle a little as he balances himself between holding his weight with one arm, and climbing the rock partly with the other. Bones is reaching down just enough that he can catch him at least, and Jim focuses his strength on pushing him up once Bones has a good grip.

He groans at first, then lets out a relieved sigh once the weight's off of him, and the man is pulled completely onto the rock. He nods at Bones's last words, catching the doctor's hand and squeezing it briefly, if only because the moment doesn't exactly lend itself to deeper and more meaningful shows of affection. "We'll be fine. Promise."

Hopping back down onto the ground, he finally pulls out his gun, still set on stun rather than kill. If he can manage, he'd rather be able to find a solution that wouldn't involve killing the animal. Nodding to Re-L, he starts walking calmly back towards the foliage, though not headed straight to the animal. "Come on, let's see if we can get it farther away from here."

"Don't waste too much strength on them." Of course, they'd do what they wanted to anyways and she knew it, but it stood to be said. There's no use in running themselves down for people that may be debatably helpful, but, there again... she's also from the kind of place where they don't really spare other lives as a rule. It helped to travel with a literal personification of Death, but... well, none of that was important to note right now. Not when there's a monster prowling just within her sight line, blue eyes watching intently. There's a bit of a look back at them, for a moment, Re-L's eyes still glued to the creature as she puts her gun in its holster, beginning to shed an outer layer or two of her favored outfit.

It will eventually do nothing but get her stuck, and really, she doesn't need that much fabric over her if they're going crawling through jungle.

"Keep ahold of these, will you?" She hands the cloth to Bones with a little nod, feeling a little lighter to be rid of it. "I'll keep Jim in one piece."

With Jim down on the ground again she cocks her rifle again, the spent shells falling to the ground beside them and the weapon loaded to bare once more.

"Why waste time with that? Take it out and move along. You're going to need your energy to drag along our hangers on, now, too. It's just a matter of finding a good angle at which to dispose of it from."

Jim doesn't try to let it get to him much, especially when he knows Re-L's attitude is merely a product of the place where she comes from, but the ease with which she seems so willing to dispose of 'dead weight', as she'd call it, is a little jarring. it's not how things are where Jim comes from, at least not among Starfleet officers. They're here to help and save those scientists, and useless though they may seem, Jim's purpose is to get them back to the Quarantine safely, with or without the records.

He follows after Re-L, not too bothered by her rifle. He'd expect the same sort of attitude from just about anyone, really, and it's not like he's a stranger to firearms either. He just likes to avoid them if he can.

"You'll have to forgive me if I'm not eager to kill the animal," he breathes, voice quiet as he follows after Re-L into the dense vegetation. He's keeping an eye and ear on the creature, while looking for any kind of landform that he can use to trick the animal and get it away from them, and into a position where it can't come after them again.

"We're not here to be an animal welfare group." It's a simple thing, so far as she's concerned - the less time they waste here with this animal meant more time to get their patients back to where they needed to be, back to the others in their camp so that they could call for them to be picked up. Surely the Quarantine would want their scientists back, would know what was going on with these mysterious yellow kits and why every single one of them looked as though they'd been rolling in pollen. At the same time it's all a bit suspicious, and if they aren't provided answers -

It's safe to say she'll have to investigate herself. For the moment, though, she sinks down behind a larger tree trunk, seemingly toppled some time ago, but she suspects by a very like creature by the damage done. She can see it, still pacing agitated and still bleeding, blue eyes darting across it's body as if trying to discern a weak spot before she has to find one on the fly, not keen to play that game of Russian roulette, if she's being honest -

"If it tries to kill me, I'll kill it first. That's it. If you can find a way to get it off our case without neutralizing it, then you can have your way." A pause, and then, as if she was going to take any other deal -

"Deal?"

He gets that, he really does. It's just a matter of survival, not that Re-L takes pleasure in killing the animal. But it's difficult to explain, for him. There are so many animals gone back home, so many species extinct, plenty wiped out by humans no less, it's just hard for him to cope with having to kill an animal. So if he has another alternative, he's definitely going with it.

That, of course, depends on Re-L giving him that chance too, because he has a feeling that given the opportunity, she wouldn't miss a clean shot. So when she speaks again, he breathes a soft sigh of relief, smiling faintly as he nods at her. "Deal."

Better than nothing. Anyway, first step is to get the animal farther away from Bones and the scientists, so glancing around, he draws a path in his head, then gets out from behind the fallen tree, starting on a trail rounding the creature, trying to keep the same distance while doing as little noise as possible. Re-L can either follow after or watch his back, he's fine with both options.

For her they're all long gone - and by that she means long gone. Most animals she's ever seen had been in film and books instead of actually real and breathing in front of her, and perhaps that's why there's such a cut off, for her. She's never had a pet, or the experience of dealing with animals to soften her a little past knowing that if this came for her, she was going to kill it. Though she'd never exactly been a terribly soft girl, dealing with absolute destruction and surviving on their own hadn't exactly been an easy lesson, and Romdeau's fall..

Well, life has a way of teaching even Re-L Mayer lessons she doesn't want to deal with or hear. "Then we'll go from here." She agrees with a little nod, no hint of a smile, but he's used to that by now.

Re-L follows behind at a careful pace, far enough that she feels she could at least take a distracting shot or two before the animal got too close, and what she felt was an advantageous angle. Thick skin would make a lot of the difference, here, and shooting for soft underbellies or recesses would more than likely be her best bet. "What's your plan, here?" She asks, voice low, too curious for her own damn good.

Honestly, Jim's just glad she's at least giving him the chance to try for something other than simply putting down the animal. Sure, it's massive, wild and an outright confrontation would likely end in death for him, but it's also just an animal. Whatever the reason for attacking them, it's only acting on instinct, and Jim's the one trespassing on its space, not the other way around.

There's a hint of tension when she speaks up, and Jim shifts and tries to get a look at the creature, to see if it responds to the sound of Re-L's voice. His hand raises to her in the meantime, as if telling her to stay silent, then once he's sure the animal hasn't spotted them yet, he resumes his walk across the field of tall grass.

"We need to be on higher ground," he murmurs, voice barely there. "If we could find a hill or something..."

Jim remembers some of the trek across the delta, and he's hoping to find one of those steep falls he'd seen before. Ideally, he'd be able to do that before the animal was made aware of their presence, but just as he trails off he hears the faint ruffling turning louder, and a deeper growl turned their way just before the animal starts charging towards their location.

"Oh, great," he breathes, then nudges Re-L forward. "Run!"

Of course, here they are, deep in grass and the lot, precisely the kind of place she generally did not want to be while being chased by a gigantic animal hell bent on killing her - and it turns toward them. Thoughts of getting to a higher ground disappear fairly quickly as Jim nudges her. But once she's off, she's off like a flash. For things like this being generally lanky pays off - running away with a long stride makes it somewhat less of a struggle.. besides the high grass of course.

There's no real plan to which way she goes - the animal didn't seem to be too entirely intelligent, so she hopes a sort of zig-zagging pattern might confuse it some, even if it just buys them time.

"Now would be a good time for a better plan than 'high ground', Jim!" Lest she decides to just take matters in to her own hands, but, for the moment she isn't worn down and won't resort to shooting. Yet.

The high grass is as much a hindrance as it is an advantage. While it makes it harder for them to move, it also means they're somewhat hidden from the animal's sight, and evidently it relies on that sense more so than the others. Thankfully for them.

Re-L's running ahead of him and he keeps it that way, making sure to stay just a couple of feet behind, so he's between her and the creature. Whichever way she runs, he'll follow after her. Well, at least at first. When she speaks up again, a thought pops into his head, and he takes a few sharp breaths before answering.

"Run left," he says. "Run left, and keep running!"

He's fairly sure the steep hillside he'd spotted before is nearby. Of course he can't be absolutely sure, but if it's not anywhere near, then at least the creature will only be chasing one of them. Once he gets Re-L running left, he turns to the right, lifting up his gun and aiming a few shots at the sky, so the laser light and the sound will catch the creature's attention. Hopefully.

In a way Re-L is grateful she's been making a conscious effort to go through with gym time, to make sure she was getting in her cardio and the rest that she'd thrown off so often with Dadalus. Mainly because, in Romdeau, there hadn't been as much temptation for foods she shouldn't eat, and Iggy's insistence on making sure she was doing at least minimal effort to stay fit had been enough. But, here and now.. she knows that if she hadn't been at least following a bit of her regimen, she'd be up shit's creek without a paddle with this running, eventually.

"What the hell are you planning?!" She yells after him as he splits off from her, at the very least wanting a rough idea of what the hell Jim is thinking. Bones would have both their asses for this is they came back roughed up, and she's not particularly keen on listening to it at the moment. Particularly when there was very little of a plan to begin with, and then Jim hatched one on the fly and ran with it.

Either way, she sticks to his instruction, even as she notices the light go up behind her. She's got no damn clue what she's doing past this, but once she can't even hear the creature following her anymore, and a hollow appears ahead, she ducks inside to at least try and catch her breath a little. It would appear that the beast had decided to follow Jim instead of her, and after a few moments taken to catch her breath Re-L is darting around to where she thinks would be most advantageous, if Jim is following some sort of cliff plan still. She stays low, working her way through the reeds at a slow, carefully picked pace, occasionally standing a little straighter to make sure she wasn't walking right in to it.

After a bit of time creeping she can't help but mutter under her breath : "Where the hell did you end up, Jim?"

Sharing his plan isn't exactly his top priority at the moment. Much more important things to worry about when one's being chased by a wild animal, so as long as Re-L's doing what he told her, he's not going to bother stopping and yelling out his plan at her. She's doing her role, and that's what matters at the moment.

After that, he focuses on keeping up his speed. He knows he won't make it for much longer, but luckily for him, that cliff he's been hoping for isn't too far ahead. He can hear the creature huffing and growling behind him but he doesn't even look over his shoulder, knowing the scare could be enough for him to trip up and lose the advantage of what little distance there is between him and the creature.

There's very little warning for him as he comes upon the hillside. He shoots straight out of the tall grass only to step out onto the edge of it, just narrowly avoiding tripping up over a lone abandoned log—

Only for the animal to come barging out of the grass right behind him. He tries to duck but still feels a hard bump against his shoulder, which will no doubt leave an ugly bruise but at least helps as he falls over and lands right over the other side of the log.

"Oomf!" He rolls closer to the edge of the hill, but manages to hold on as the animal trips over the log and the ground, rolling down the hill as it cries out in surprise. "Aw, fuck..."

He looks down as the animal reaches the bottom, still whining. Despite the strong landing, it struggles back to its feet and eventually walks away once it realizes it can't climb back up.

"Re-L! Here... here," he loses his voice halfway through, panting heavily. He closes his eyes, waiting until she comes find him.

She watches like a hawk, gun still cocked and ready should things go South instead of as she's guessing Jim planned. The problem is she can't really be entirely sure, considering she's assuming, but hopefully if she needs to make a judgement call it won't be one that Jim might be annoyed at her for. Not that it will wreck her life too badly, but it's always nice to not have to deal with bickering back and forth on their way back to camp. Small preferences, really. She'd do what she felt had to be done, in the end of things, particularly if...

Well, if it looked like Jim was going to attempt to get himself killed or something.

Re-L's arm makes a jerk to take aim as she sees the animal barreling toward Jim as he's trying to duck behind the log - sees that hit and just about shoots the thing for good measure. If she's honest she'd rather the thing was just dead, narrowing the chances it might try to double back on them or something to that effect. There was little chance of it, considering the animal's apparent lack of intelligence, but... better safe than sorry. Once the beast is over the edge and tumbling, Re-L is already moving, darting out from her hiding space and moving with care toward Jim. By some off chance the thing caught itself -

Her caution is for naught, though, as she watches it walk away, talk between it's legs. Reaching Jim, though - Well, she leans over the log, one foot positioned on it so that it doesn't deem to roll on top of the man -

"You done playing savior of the forest now?"

Re-L could've just hit him with that shot, he realizes belatedly. It's not enough for him to get pissed, particularly since she only managed to graze the animal and not seriously injure it, but he does mutter a curse under his breath while he's lying there, panting for breath and waiting for her to reach him.

He opens his eyes again when he hears her footsteps getting closer, tipping his head slightly as he looks up at her. "Yeah, I'm... I'm good now, thanks."

He lifts a hand up for her to take, so she can help him up to his feet. He does so with a lot of groaning and struggling, hissing a curse as he cups a hand over his injured shoulder. "I'm getting too old for this shit."

Sure she could have - but she trusts her eyes and her ability to shoot without striking anything she doesn't want to. Whether that was something given to her or something of an innate thing .. she doesn't stop to think about it too hard. At the moment she's partially relieved that Jim's plan had worked, otherwise she might've had to find a way to get under that thing to get a proper hit in. As much as she'd revel in that, considering the danger and gore potentially involved. Getting a hit in that would make sure it didn't suffer too much, either, would've been very much in the air, which isn't her favorite thing to do.

"You're sure? You sound like you've just run a marathon or something." She's no doctor, but she imagines that hit to his shoulder isn't going to end up too well for him either. At least not until Bones could see to it and mend anything that's broken for the time being.

His offered hand is taken, giving him a pull that's not too jarring to help him to his feet, as always a little stronger than her lengthy frame gives away. There's a bit of a look as he says he's getting too old before she points to the offending log.

"Sit down. I'm not Bones but we should at least look at it. Especially if you're going to be like this about it."

"I might as well have. Did you see how fast that thing was?" He huffs, letting out a more relieved sigh and closing his eyes. He tries to get his body to relax, but he knows with the adrenaline still pumping through him, it'll be a while before his systems calm down enough to relax at all.

"It was a reference. You know, the..." He trails off, sighing and shaking his head at her. "Never mind. It'll be fine. I'll likely need Bones to look at it, but nothing's broken. Shoulder's not dislodged either, I'd feel it."

Possibly a bruise, at most. Hurts like hell, but with a beast like that running into him, it's to be expected. Still, just so she won't give him a hard time like Bones likely would soon enough, he does as told and takes a seat on that log, glancing up at her with both eyebrows raised. Happy now?

"One would think if you're trying to out run a large animal with a long gait that you would be a conditioned runner." There's a quirk of her eyebrow that has probably been thrown her way more than once or twice when she's done something that someone didn't really approve of. (Hint : she's seen this expression a lot. It came with being a strong willed child.) Still, she's at least grateful that she's not going to have to go and retrieve Bones to piece him back together at the moment, hooking her rifle back in to its holster at her thigh for the moment.

"The what?" Remember, Jim, she comes from a place where there's not a lot to reference so far as old pop culture. She doesn't seem to believe him when he says it'll be fine, that he's fine, blue eyes staring at him hard as her brows crease in the middle for the moment. If she gets frown lines from this, Jim -

"Still. Catch your breath. I'm not sure I can drag you back the entire way even if I had to." This entire adventure has been a little much, if she's honest, and she could stand with a little break too. She scans the tall grasses around them, tucking a stray black hair behind her ear as the breeze ruffles it. "It's a shame.. It's peaceful, out here, but full of entirely too many things that would want you dead."

"I'm used to running. There's a bit of that involved, when I land myself into dangerous situations." Never mind that captains aren't supposed to take part in away missions unless absolutely necessary. Jim would die of boredom if he were to do nothing but sit on his chair for five damn years straight, that's for sure.

"Old movie. You probably never heard of it. Anyway, I'm not too old, that's the point." So don't dare joke like he's ancient or whatever. He'll challenge you for a marathon and make sure he wins, out of pure stubbornness if nothing else.

"You won't have to drag me back, I'm just fine," he huffs, rolling his eyes a hint. He opens his jacket, though, letting some of the breeze cool him down. His skin is still hot and he feels a bit of sweat form, now that he's stopped running and moving around and has settled down some. "Yeah. I wouldn't advise building a cabin out here."

"Sounds like a problem you should self-address." It seemed to be a bit too much of a habit if there's a need for one of those glances between him and Bones before he goes off. She's not blind enough to not see all of that mess, Jim, and read a little bit between the lines from what she's learned of them over time.

"Not too old? Are you sure about that?" Keep in mind you're talking to a girl barely out of her teens, Jim. By something like a couple of months at this point. He and Bones were, if not nearly, a definite decade older than her. Either way she's not much of a runner herself, but tends to hold at least a slight advantage due to that pesky proxy clone thing.

"Wouldn't be bad if you could make a compound out of it." This is just idle talk - she definitely has no plans for it. "Walls and a bit of a defense system to ward off the smaller bits. Wouldn't keep anyone completely safe, but safe enough to not feel too threatened, I would think."

- Though, wait - "I still wouldn't trade my apartment for it."

"Never said it was a problem." Yeah, fat chance of Jim avoiding dangerous situations. Either way, Bones is just a fussy mother hen sometimes, and prone to overreacting too. Granted, Jim's tendencies don't help a whole lot, but really, he's not as bad as Bones likely would make it sound. (Well, not anymore, at least.)

"Pretty sure. Shut up, kid," he swats lightly at her leg, huffing. If she's gonna call him old, then you bet your ass he will call her a child. A decade makes him older than her, but it certainly does not make him old.

He nods vaguely, looking around them for a moment. "The abandoned city would work better for that. Anyway," he says while getting to his feet and dusting himself off some. "Come on. Let's go find Bones and head to the camp. We gotta get out of here."

"Not for you, at least, right?" There's a little smirk tugging at the corner of her lips before she turns away, both in an effort to gather herself some and considering she didn't want to be sunk up on... She's got nothing to base her assumptions on Jim previous to Riverview on other than Bones' stories, but considering how she'd seen him react to her arm.. She'd believe Jim about Bones being fussy.

(Granted, he'd have a right to, with her, considering how quickly her body had already begun to heal that little issue by the time she reached him.)

"Right. Kid." She wants to make some other quip, but she knew she deserved that one for the old comment. "At least you aren't almost literal dust yet."

"True. It's not that bad out there, either." At least all the time she's been out there and exploring or doing some kind of stealth games to keep herself sharp, she'd barely had to worry about much in the way of monsters. Maybe they'd gotten used to her or.. just knew she'd definitely be the first to shoot at them. "Fine by me. If you need me to I can carry one of our additions. With your shoulder."

Granted, she could've offered earlier, but...

Nah.

It's partly Bones being fussy, partly Jim not being careful enough. He's always had terrible self-preservation instincts, particularly when someone else's safety is at stake. Always seems like the easiest and most logical choice to make, to leap into danger himself so he can avoid someone else getting hurt.

Bones has mellowed out over the years too, though. Or just gotten more used to it.

"I've got a few decades before that happens," he rolls his eyes, starting down the way they came from. "We'll see how I feel later on. It's not hurting that bad just yet, and we don't even know how much we'll have to carry." And they do have the rover with them, so they may as well use it too.

"Probably near on a century if your medicine is anything like that tricorder Bones has." And, after all, they'd managed to keep Donov Mayer alive for a hell of a long time after he probably should've been gone with the medicine in Romdeau Dome. "IF Daedalus could keep my grandfather alive for as long as he did it won't be a stretch for Bones I don't think." If they could manage it, she's sure Bones could if he really wanted to. Re-L watches her feet for a moment as she steps through a few denser bits of grass, not wanting to trip on fauna caught around the front of her shoes or something equally as stupid.

That'd be a hell of a way to end a mission - face planting in grass.

"Well, you've still got a good bit of adrenaline going too, I would think." That tended to happen with a high paced chase and all of that lot. Or she's just under estimating how tough Jim is in these situations, considering they'd never been on a mission like this previously. "Also possible we'll come back and they both may have come around. We'll see."

At least they hadn't had to go too entirely far to rid themselves of their large friend. Getting too far away from the rest out here wouldn't due either.

"Yeah, maybe so," he agrees, even if he doesn't think he'll be lucky enough to escape every dangerous situation he lands himself in forever. Sooner or later, it'll get the best of him. But he doesn't dwell on that much— it's not important how long he lives, but how well he lives, and so far? So good.

He follows close to her, just as careful about where he puts his feet while looking ahead to know where they're going. It would be pretty hilarious if she were to trip and fall face first on the grass right now, though. He certainly wouldn't hold back from laughing his lungs out. No better way to end a mission, in his opinion.

"I can track Bones's location," he lifts up his comm device, Bones's signal pinging on it, and he follows in that direction. It's fairly quiet now, so he thinks (hopes) they won't have any unpleasant surprises, neither before nor after they make it back to the doctor and his patients.

"Just be careful you don't end up a bag of dust in a wheelchair." She'd seen that happen, in her grandfather, but doesn't bother to explain past that. No need to go in to the details of life before the Quarantine when they're trying to get back to Bones and finish up a mission. Right now she wanted to try and keep their eyes on the prize, little eager for a hot shower in her new apartment or just... not sleeping rough for the first time in what felt like forever. Hell, even sleeping in the rabbit would rank over tents for Re-L, but then again, she's used to much more plush accommodations.

Thankfully for Re-L's dignity there's only a minor tripping incident, which she manages to sort of.. stumble out of, but then definitely dos not bring up, either. She's usually much more in control despite how gangly she can appear, but the frown on her face says she's doing all the mental berating she possibly can at the moment -

"Good. Now let's hope we don't run in to that beast's partner in crime or something on the way back..." She sees nothing on the horizon, but that, in this forest, doesn't mean a damn thing.

"Bones is still where he should be, I assume?"

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winscenario - 2017-10-04 15:23 (UTC) - Expand

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